What is a good cost per VDP view?

What counts as a VDP view?

A VDP view is one load of a vehicle detail page, the page on your website for a single unit. It is the closest thing online to a shopper walking up to the car. For video ads, the VDP views that count are the ones the ad sent, which you can separate out by tagging each ad's link with UTM parameters and filtering for them in your site analytics.

How do you calculate it?

Take the ad spend for a period and divide it by the VDP views those ads produced. Meta reports link clicks, but a link click is not the same as a VDP view. Some shoppers tap and leave before the page loads. Use Meta's link clicks as a quick check, and use your site analytics for the real count.

• Pull ad spend for the date range from Meta Ads Manager
• Pull VDP views from those ads in your site analytics, filtered by UTM source
• Divide spend by VDP views
• Compare link clicks to VDP views. A wide gap points to slow pages or broken links

What should you compare it against?

Compare against what you already pay for the same result. For a listing site, divide the monthly bill by the VDP views or clicks it sent to your site. Do the same for paid search and any other social ads. Click-through rate helps too: LocaliQ/WordStream's Facebook Ads Benchmarks 2025 put the automotive category at about 0.8% CTR, against 1.71% across all industries, though that category tracks repair, services, and parts rather than dealer sales.

Why use cost per VDP instead of cost per lead?

A video ad's job is to get an in-market shopper to look at a specific car. Whether that shopper then fills out a form depends on your website, your price, and how fast your BDC calls back, none of which the ad controls. Cost per VDP view measures the part the ad does, so you can tell if the ad is working before you start debating attribution.

Related

• Research: state-by-state dealer video audits
• How much do car dealer video ads cost?
• How dealer video ads stay in sync with inventory
• Minnesota: what 302 franchised dealers actually run on Meta
• VinScroll vs a dealer video agency

Common questions

Is cost per VDP view the same as cost per click?

Not quite. Cost per click counts every tap on the ad, including shoppers who leave before your page loads. Cost per VDP view counts only the page loads your site analytics records. It runs a little higher than cost per click and matches what your site recorded.

How long should I run ads before judging cost per VDP view?

Give the campaign enough time and spend to settle past the platform's learning phase, and judge a full month when you can. Compare the same date range across channels, since shopping traffic moves with weekends, month-end, and incentive changes.

Does VinScroll report cost per VDP view?

Yes. VinScroll sends a monthly plain-English email report with reach, video views, VDP clicks, and cost per VDP view. The ad spend runs in your own ad account, so you can check every number against Meta Ads Manager and your own site analytics.